Eat, drink and be merry - 15 Sep 2008

Eat, drink and be merry is a common approach to life, but all too often it is the wrong sort of eating and drinking! We have known for some time that a Mediterranean style diet - rich in vegetables, fruit, olive oil and a moderate amount of red wine - appears to have health benefits. Now, a meta-study, published in The British Medical Journal seems to say that this is uneqivocal. Eating a Mediterranean diet does reduces all cause mortality, as well as the incidence of heart disease, cancers, neurological diseases and other chronic conditions.

The problem that most people have is just what exactly is a Mediterannean diet? Many years ago I spent a lot of time in Greece - my mother lived there. And it struck me then - long before anyone had seriously started to look at health statistics in these countries - that the diet was totally different to that normally eaten elsewhere. People eat at least one kilogram of vegetables a day - quite literally. So the general admonition to eat 'five a day' is definitely on the right lines. The amount of red meat is small - but there is a fair amount of oily fish eaten. Then there are olives, olive oils and, interestingly, preserved meats such as salamis and sausages. I am not sure about the health benefits of the latter - there is certainly some evidence to suggest that these are actually damaging to health. But it is also all about quantities. I stayed with a Greek family for a while. We ate twice a day - breakfast - which was yogurt, honey and bread and then again in the evening - the wonderful mixture of foods that make up Greek cuisine. I lost weight - testament to the overall reduction in calories - in spite of never feeling hungry with the difference in eating pattern from my normal regime.

However, if eating a Mediterranean diet is the key to good health I am right there. It beats hamburgers and chips every time!